MTC meaning in oil and gas

Mass Transport Complex

Mass-transport complexes (MTCs) are significant deposits in deepwater settings. The term MTC is a seismic stratigraphic term and can only be applied to features at a scale that can only be completely imaged on volumetrically large seismic surveys. MTCs vary in size and shape, from filling one intraslope basin to several 1000's of square km in unconfined settings. MTCs can vary in thickness from 5 m to 100's of m. Their upper surface is usually irregular, and it commonly eroded by overlying channel and related deposits. Basal surfaces vary from planar, to erosional, to stair step. organization-specific facies consists of (a) rotated and translated blocks, (b) thrusted blocks, and (c) chaotic facies. Where MTCs have been cored, they consist primarily of clay-rich sediments.